Call it cultural convergence: Three of my clients all feature grandmothers as inspirations for their technologies.
In one case, it was a grandmother's joy in receiving unexpected phone calls when she was laid up that inspired a new phone app, which won't launch until early next year.
Another client was inspired to build an entirely new layer for the Internet that allows for an intention-driven economy because his grandmother -- the first black woman to have her own radio show -- encouraged him to shake up the system and give more power to the people. Again, this platform won't launch until early next year, but it's the grandmother aspect of it that struck me.
And finally, a client I can talk about – ISKME, an education nonprofit that holds an annual Big Ideas Fest to gather education innovators together – just gave its Big Ideas Fest 2014 Innovation Award in Action to Jackie Brown, a volunteer in the Granny Cloud Team, part of Professor Sugata Mitra’s project to recruit virtual grannies around the world with children in developing countries to coach and mentor them via the Internet. Mitra was award the first million dollar TED Prize last year, and Brown, who has been volunteering for the past three years, now helps assist in training new grannies.
Grandmothers often play the role of Zen priest, giving their grandchildren unconditional encouragement and support the way parents -- who see reflections of themselves in their offspring -- rarely do. Generational distance not only appears to make the heart grow fonder but can also spur the creativity that drives our new technologies.
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